Prince of Persia producer: Harrison’s wrong about single-player games

Prince of Persia producer Ben Mattes reckons Atari head Phil Harrison’s got it wrong when he says unconnected, single-player games are on the way out. Well he would, wouldn’t he.

“I read that, and I don’t totally agree,” Mattes told Eurogamer. “I know where he’s coming from – I certainly see a lot of the industry moving in the direction of more community, more multiplayer, that sort of stuff.

“But in my opinion, there are things you can do in a carefully crafted single-player game – experiences you can create, emotions you can elicit and magnitudes of engaging the player – that you’re not going to reproduce in the uncontrolled environment of multiplayer.

“For some time yet, there’s going to be a market of people who say, ‘You know what, pander to me. Suck me into your world and just make me believe. I don’t want to be distracted by griefers and high scores, and dealing with the stuff not everybody loves about multiplayer games.’ I do think there is still a significant market there.”